Vegetable farming without soil grows popular among city dwellers

Growing vegetables usually requires land and arduous labour. So, the Cumilla Agricultural Research Centre has introduced vegetable farming using only water.

Ash gourd, cucumber, lettuce can be produced using this system, known as hydroponic system, said Md Ayub Hossain Khan, scientific officer of the centre.

Vegetables can be grown in verandas and corridors of high-rises using this method of growing plants in water-based nutrient rich solution.

The scientific officer also said using the method results in very few insect attacks during the cultivation time.

“If someone wants to cultivate vegetables using this system, she/he has to take water in a plastic pod and put small plastic glasses on the hole of drilled polystyrene sheet on the pod where the seed will be put,” he said.

The main technique is to provide 16 ingredients (named as Stock Solution A, B) needed for plants to grow through water instead of soil, he added.

These ingredients are available in the capital and Cumilla Agricultural Research Centre. At least six plants can be put in a plastic pod which will approximately cost Tk 1,000 in total, Ayub said.

Nazrul Islam Shaheen, an interested farmer from Kaptan Bazar area of Cumilla town, said: “I watched videos on YouTube about farming vegetables without soil and got interested in it.”

“It’d be easier for me if I could get suggestions from agriculturist directly in Cumilla,” he added.

Md Obaidullah Kayser, Chief Scientific Officer of Cumilla Agricultural Research Centre, said people living in high-rise buildings are getting interested in vegetable farming using the Hydroponic System.

“We’ve already started farming vegetables in the research centre where people of the area are coming to see it,” he said adding that the agriculturists will provide necessary suggestions to anyone interested in the system.unb